Terms of Use

1. Acceptance of these terms

These Terms of Use ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Gironde.org regarding your access to and use of the website at www.gironde.org and any sub-domains, pages, content, and features made available there (together, the "Site"). By accessing or using the Site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please discontinue use.

These Terms should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Legal Notice, all of which form part of your agreement with us.

2. Acceptable use

You may use the Site for personal, non-commercial purposes — reading articles, sharing links, learning about the Gironde region. When using the Site, you agree not to:

• Use the Site in any way that violates applicable French, European Union, or international law;
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Site, its servers, or related systems or networks;
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Site, or breach security or authentication measures;
• Interfere with, disrupt, or place an unreasonable load on the Site, including via denial-of-service attacks or excessive automated requests;
• Scrape, harvest, mine, or systematically extract content from the Site without prior written permission, except as expressly allowed by these Terms;
• Use the Site to transmit malware, viruses, or other harmful code;
• Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
• Frame, mirror, or republish the Site or substantial portions of its content;
• Bypass any technical measures we use to restrict access to or protect the Site;
• Use the Site in any manner that could damage, disable, or impair its operation, or interfere with another user's enjoyment of it.

Reasonable, low-volume access by recognised search-engine crawlers and well-behaved indexing services is welcomed and is governed by our robots.txt file.

3. Intellectual property

Unless otherwise stated, all original text, layout, design, graphics, logos, and code on the Site are the intellectual property of Gironde.org, protected under French and international copyright law. The compilation of the Site (the selection, arrangement, and coordination of its content) is also protected.

You may:

• View pages and use the Site for personal reference;
• Print or save individual pages for non-commercial personal use;
• Share links to our pages on social networks, in messages, or in your own writing;
• Quote brief excerpts (in line with the right of short quotation under French copyright law) with a clear attribution and a link back to the source page.

You may not, without our prior written permission:

• Reproduce, redistribute, or publish substantial portions of the Site's content;
• Use any of our content for commercial purposes;
• Modify, translate, or create derivative works based on our content;
• Remove, alter, or obscure any copyright notice, attribution, or watermark.

Photographs, fonts, map data, and other third-party assets used on the Site are licensed under their respective licences, which take precedence over these Terms for those specific assets. The applicable licences are listed in our Legal Notice.

4. Third-party links and references

The Site contains links to external websites and services that we believe may be useful — official tourism boards, departmental sites, transport operators, museums, and similar references. These links are provided as a convenience.

We do not control external sites, and a link is not an endorsement. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, availability, security, or privacy practices of any third-party site, nor for any loss or damage arising from your use of those sites. You access external sites at your own risk; check their terms and privacy policies before relying on or sharing data with them.

5. Advertising

Gironde.org displays advertising provided through Google AdSense. These ads are visually distinct from editorial content but may appear adjacent to it. The selection of which ads you see is made by Google's ad systems based on Google's policies, signals about your browsing context, and — unless you have opted out — your past activity across sites in Google's ad network.

For details on what data is collected for ad-serving and how to manage ad personalisation, see our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy. Advertising decisions do not influence our editorial coverage. We are not responsible for the products or services advertised; questions about a specific ad should be directed to Google via the "AdChoices" or "Why this ad?" link inside the ad.

6. Information accuracy and "as-is" basis

We make a reasonable effort to provide accurate, current, and useful information about the Gironde region. However, the Site is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including (to the maximum extent permitted by law) implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, non-infringement, or uninterrupted availability.

Information on the Site is general and informational. It is not professional advice — legal, financial, medical, travel, or otherwise. Practical details such as opening times, prices, schedules, and tide tables change frequently and should be verified with the relevant official source before you rely on them.

Statutory rights that you have as a consumer under French or European Union law are not affected by this clause.

7. Limitation of liability

8. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Gironde.org and its operators against any claim, demand, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Site, or your infringement of any third party's rights.

9. Availability and changes to the Site

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Site — pages, features, or the entire Site — at any time, with or without notice. We may also change the URL structure, retire pages, or restructure sections as the editorial scope evolves. We are not liable for any consequences of such changes.

10. Privacy and data protection

Your privacy is important to us. The handling of your personal data is governed by our Privacy Policy, which explains what we collect, how we use it, the legal bases under GDPR, your rights, and how to exercise them. Please read that policy alongside these Terms.

11. Termination

We may, at our discretion, restrict or terminate your access to the Site if you breach these Terms or use the Site in a way that we reasonably consider harmful to other users, to third parties, or to the operation of the Site. Termination does not affect any provision of these Terms that by its nature is intended to survive — including those relating to intellectual property, disclaimers, and limitation of liability.

12. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the law of France. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or your use of the Site will be submitted to the competent courts of [Jurisdiction], subject to mandatory provisions of consumer law that may grant you the right to bring proceedings in your country of residence.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or the scope of the Site. The "Last reviewed" date at the top of this page indicates when the most recent version took effect. Material changes will be flagged on the Site where reasonable. Your continued use of the Site after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms; if you do not agree, please stop using the Site.

14. Severability and entire agreement

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable by a competent court, that provision will be modified only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force. These Terms, together with the documents they reference, constitute the entire agreement between you and Gironde.org regarding the Site and supersede any prior understandings.

15. Contact

For questions about these Terms, write to [email protected]. For general queries, see the Contact page.